196 



XIV. — On the Cause of Unequal Falls of Rain in Cumber- 

 land. By Alderman Thomas Hopkins. 



Read October 1, 1850. 



Mr. Millar, of Whitehaven, in a paper read to the Royal 

 Society, on May 18, 1848, gives a number of important 

 meteorological facts relating to the Lake district of Cum- 

 berland and Westmoreland. The statement of the falls of 

 rain that take place in many parts of this locality are very 

 valuable, on account of the different heights of the parts 

 above the level of the sea where the rain gauges were placed, 

 and the particular shape of the face of the country. For 

 a long time it had been known that the fall of rain became 

 greater, as the ground rose from the low level of Lancashire 

 to the top of the ridge that separates that county from 

 Yorkshire ; and it appears that the same general fact is, to 

 a certain extent, observable in Cumberland, Mr. Millar 

 having found that the fall was small at Whitehaven and 

 other places in the low country near the sea, compared with 

 that which took place up the valleys and on the mountains 

 of the interior country. And that gentleman, after stating 

 many facts, attempts to exhibit a law which determines that 

 the amount of rain shall increase up to a certain height, and 

 decrease above that height. He says, " It seems probable 

 that in mountainous districts the amount of rain increases 

 from the valley upwards to an altitude of about 2,000 feet, 

 where it reaches a maximum, and that above this elevation 

 it rapidly decreases." — P. 85. Now, although the facts thus 

 given are important in themselves, and afford a certain de- 

 gree of countenance to the hypothesis advanced; yet neither 



